Citi Bikes’ Canadian manufacturer files for bankruptcy: report

The Canadian company that makes bicycles and support equipment for New York’s Citi Bike program filed for bankruptcy protection Monday, it was reported. (Mariela Lombard for New York Daily News)

The Canadian company that makes bicycles and support equipment for New York's Citi Bike program filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, it was reported.

PBSC Urban Solutions, a nonprofit known as Bixi, has debt of almost 50 million in Canadian dollars, the Montreal Gazette reported.

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The company, based in Montreal, has provided the essentials for the bike-share programs of New York, Chicago, Washington, Boston and Minneapolis, to name just a few.

Bixi's finances have been in trouble for months, and a recent tech dispute led New York City and Chicago to withhold payments to the company totaling 5.6 million in Canadian dollars, according to multiple reports.

New York City's bike-share program, which debuted in 2013, is run by a subsidiary of a company, Alta Bicycle Share, that licenses Bixi's technology in the U.S.

The New York Times reported that Bixi has not released its financial statements from 2012. In September, the auditor general of the City of Montreal said there were "serious doubts about Bixi's ability to continue operations," according to the Montreal Gazette.

And on Jan. 15 of this year, Montreal told Bixi to pay up on an outstanding loan of 31.6 million in Canadian bucks, or about $29 million in U.S. coin, according to The New York Times.

The company has been embroiled in a dispute that dates to 2012 with 8D Technologies, a Montreal-based company that makes the software for Bixi's bike-share stations — now a fixture in many Manhattan neighborhoods.

According to the Montreal Gazette, 8D wouldn't sell all rights to its software, so Bixi hired another company to handle its software needs.

Some of the software developed by Bixi is used to track usage of the bikes, the paper reported, and Bixi has admitted that it dragged its feet in providing updates to the software for New York as well as Chicago.

Bixi CEO Michel Philibert said New York City owes the company 3 million in Canadian dollars, according to the Montreal Gazette.

Alta Bicycle Share, the company that runs New York's bike-share, has told Bixi it wants $11 million Canadian in damages for software delays, the paper reported.

Bixi's filings do not mean the end of the CitiBike program. In October, Alta Vice President Mia Birk told The Atlantic Cities: "No matter what happens with (Bixi), Alta Bicycle Share will continue now and in the future to provide world-class products and services to our clients."